The saga of Mpumalanga public works minister Steve Mabona intensified this week when the Scorpions submitted a long-awaited charge sheet in the Pretoria Regional Court against Mabona’s former head of department, William Mthombothi.
Mthombothi was arrested and charged with fraud by the Scorpions last November.
On Wednesday, the Scorpions submitted the charge sheet, accusing Mthombothi of fraudulently authorising the transfer of R6,6-million from his department to businessman Walter Senoko’s company, Positioning Corporate Underwriters and Insurance Consultants (PCUIC).
The Mail & Guardian revealed the transaction last year, and reported that R1-million of the R6,6-million was within days transferred to Mabona by Senoko.
Mabona and others involved in the saga deny that the R1-million payments by PCUIC constituted kickbacks, saying they were for legitimate deals between Mabona and Senoko.
The R6,6-million transfer stemmed from a three-way deal between the provincial department of public works, PCUIC and a construction company, DZ Civils.
PCUIC supplied guarantees to enable the department to release the money.
The Scorpions believe that PCUIC did not have the standing to issue the guarantees.
The charge sheet says Mthombothi failed to take effective steps to prevent unauthorised and/or irregular expenditure by accepting PCUIC guarantees on behalf of DZ Civils.
“The said guarantees were not executed by a bank as required in terms of clause 52 of the general condition of contract for work of civil engineering,” reads the charge sheet.
It further says that by accepting the guarantees, Mthombothi contravened Section 86 of the Public Finance Management Act.
The state also blames Mthombothi for releasing money exceeding R5-million without Treasury approval.
Mthombothi is also accused of failing to seek the approval of the provincial tender board before he released the money to PCUIC.
Mthombothi was not asked to plead and the case was postponed to May 7 to allow the accused time to study the charge sheet.
He has since been granted R20 000 bail.